The Swiss was powerless to stop Nadal opening up a 2,370 point lead at the top of the ATP rankings but he will now look to close the gap at the Shanghai Masters this week.

Nadal downed Nick Kyrgios in the final, after negotiating a tough draw where he also had to beat dangerous opponents Lucas Pouille, Karen Khachanov, John Isner and Grigor Dimitrov to land his first China Open title since 2005.

The victory came on the back of winning a third US Open and competing at the Laver Cup, in what’s proved to be a busy period for the 16-time Grand Slam champion and Federer admitted he had expected his main rival at the top of the ATP rankings to slow down.

Federer thought Nadal might pull out (Picture: AFP/Getty)

And Federer confessed he thought he would withdraw from the China Open to rest up ahead of the Masters 1000 event in Shanghai.

‘It’s nice to see him keeping going,’ he said ahead of his first-round match.

‘This [the China Open] is a really big win for him. So for him to go to Beijing and win it right away, I expected him to pull out, to be honest.